Grandparent involvement in the lives of your children is a blessing that must be managed appropriately so the joy is not offset by drama created by imbalance. If you have grandparents who cautiously seek time with your kids with a visit or they wait upon you to come see them so as not to impose, consider this ideal a wonderful balanced blessing. But occasionally the grandparent mix creates family drama that must be managed so [...]
Zig Ziglar said children spell love T-I-M-E. We remember how hard it was when our boys were young, to carve out time for them as we juggled work, housework, working out, errands, quiet time, kids’ activities and the list goes on. We were doing a lot of things with and for our kids, but the truth is that’s not the same as giving them time. It is important that kids know that they matter in [...]
The recent coverage of Masculinity with the Gillette ad and the released Guidelines from the American Psychological Association claims that “traditional masculinity – marked by stoicism, competitiveness, and dominance and aggression - is, on the whole, harmful”, essentially a ‘boys will be boys’ mentality is toxic. The “#me too” movement and meaningful efforts at creating a world where bullying and sexual predation isn’t acceptable is worthy of everyone’s time and attention to sort through the [...]
The Howards are big football fans, so last week we happened to be paying attention when the Denver Broncos hired a new head coach, Vic Fangio. At his press conference, Coach Fangio coined a phase summing up his philosophy, expectations and vision for the Broncos. He said the we will not be a team that suffers “Death by Inches.” As a mom, it really got me (Shelly) thinking. The coach was talking about areas we [...]
As you know, we’re all about encouraging you to think about things you can do to positively affect the wellbeing of your family. So instead of just saying “Hey, take some time to write down your goals for 2019 during couch time”, we want to give you an idea that has been an absolute difference-maker for the Marr family. Dinner time discussions. If we were to list the things that made our family so connected, [...]
When you were a child, did anyone teach you how to properly greet a neighbor, a friend or a guest? How to accept a compliment or what the proper behavior should look like at a restaurant or when friends come over for dinner? If so, did you know why it was important that you show such courtesy and respect? One practical piece of advice that has served us well in our parenting is to Role Play [...]
One of the greatest parenting joys is when your child lets you into their private world. What is the private world? It is a special place where we all hold deeper thoughts, treasured memories, and feel the most vulnerable. It is the essence of who we are. The private world is what we share with our spouse and only our most trusted and closest friends. As our children begin to grow and become self-aware, their [...]
Is your family characterized by having an attitude of gratitude? When creating family identity do you cultivate and teach gratitude? Among the many reasons we love the Holiday Season, Thanksgiving to Christmas, is that it provides us a wonderful opportunity to build our family identity through family traditions that encouraged Trevor and Alex’s hearts towards internalizing the virtue of gratitude. Family Identity Through Family Traditions Cultivating family identity is an anchor for you and your [...]
When we took our first parenting class, our boys behavior was not characterized by First Time Obedience (FTO). In fact it was after our very first class, when we picked up our boys from childcare, that they immediately proceeded to run around in every direction away from us. Our embarrassed calls and pleading for them to come to us were definitely not obeyed. As parents, during that time, we relied on a variety tricks to [...]
Have you ever considered the temperaments or taken a temperament test? Shelly and Trevor are Phlegmatic while Rich and Alex are Choleric. These are the temperaments in our family. Similar to love languages, temperaments are a tool that help us to describe our emotional/personality characteristics. We have found that knowing our own temperament and our boys’ temperaments has been very helpful in our parenting and understanding some of the dynamics in our relationships. We have [...]